Never Let Go
by flawless-captain-swan
Summary: CS modern soul mates AU
1. Part 1

**Okay so this is a soulmate AU. Basically, everyone has soul marks on their left wrist which are kinda like faded tattoos. Once you meet your soul mate, the soul mark slowly starts darkening and starts resembling a recently done tattoo. As you fall in love with them, the mark starts getting colored in and once you declare your love to them, it becomes like a permanent colour tattoo and never fades. This idea is mine and as far as I know it is original so I just wanted to clear up the whole process.**

 **Anyway, it is going to be a two or maybe a three shot. I hope you guys like it.**

* * *

 ** _i. all i need to know is where to stop_**

Emma Nolan _did not_ believe in soul mates.

She always treated the forget-me-not on her left wrist as a faded tattoo with no _real_ significance instead of a soul mark.

Emma Nolan did not believe in soul mates. But that didn't mean that she wasn't jealous of all her loved ones finding theirs.

David and Mary Margaret found each other in sophomore year of college. Mary Margaret's parents had gone to Paris and Emma convinced her to spend Christmas with her family. David had insisted on picking them both up from the airport in his usual overprotective elder brother manner. The minute they saw each other the faded black lines of David's sword and Mary Margaret's arrow soul marks burned and darkened. Over the course of two weeks the colors started to fill in, and three months - once they had finally professed their love for each other – the entire soul mark was filled in and bright. Emma was happy for her brother and her roommate but that did not quell the slight pang of sadness in her heart.

Regina and Robin's apple and arrow soul marks were already filled in when they were introduced to the group two years later, while Ruby and Graham's moon and wolf were almost there.

Elsa realized that her snowflake soul mark was filling in when she started spending more time with the handsome Brit next to her in the hobby art class she took. The usually cool and collected blonde was quickly falling for Liam Jones and wanted to introduce him to her best friend of seven years.

Which is exactly why Emma was rushing from her Criminal Law class at Boston University on a Tuesday afternoon, already half an hour late for the meeting. Mr. Gold, her professor, while an excellent lawyer was a pain in the ass when it came to dismissing the class. Emma was determined to not make her friend wait any longer than she has to.

She was just in the process of explaining to Elsa that _yes_ , she _was_ going to make it and _no_ , they really did _not_ have to reschedule when she found herself staring into the _bluest_ eyes she had _ever seen in her entire 24 years of existence_. The mystery eyes disappeared in the crowd before she could make out the other features of their owner. The ( _surprising_ ) jolt of disappointment she felt completely overshadowed the momentary burning sensation in her left wrist. Shaking her head resolutely ( _b_ _ecause Emma Nolan absolutely did_ not _under any circumstances drool over_ eyes _no matter how striking or whatever, no sir_ ) she made her way into Granny's where she was going to meet Elsa and her soul mate.

"Hey, I am so sorry. You know how Gold is, right? He extended the class for fifteen _fucking_ minutes. Ugh," she said as she made her way over to Elsa's booth.

"It's _okay_ , Emma. I told you," Elsa turned to the handsome man sitting opposite to her, "Liam, _this_ is my best friend Emma Nolan and Emma, this is Liam Jones my uh _soul mate_."

"It's a pleasure to meet you, lass. Elsa's told me all about you," Liam turned to shake hands with Emma.

"Ah she has told me a lot about you too. It's nice to meet you Liam."

"All good things I hope!"

And it went on from there. Emma was really happy that her friend had found Liam Jones. He was funny, smart and completely right for Elsa. She had never seen Elsa this free or happy before.

"Wait a minute, _what_ is that on your wrist Emma?" Elsa exclaimed as she snatched her left wrist to examine Emma's soul mark. "Is it just me or does your soul mark look darker and clearer than the last time I saw it?"

Both Emma and Liam turned their attention to the said soul mark to examine it.

"Elsa is right, lass, it looks darker and clearer than most soul marks. I reckon you probably met your soul mate, lass."

"Wait, what?! That is impossible! It was fine when I left class. And I really don't remember meeting anyone new is the twenty minutes it took me to reach here." Emma argued. Come to think of it, it _did_ look darker than before. Almost like how David and Mary Margaret's soul marks looked when they first laid eyes on each other. But it was impossible. She did not meet anyone new and she _always_ avoids eye contact with strangers while walking on the street.

 _Yeah but you_ did _make eye contact with Mr. Impossibly Blue Eyes_ , her brain screamed at her.

 _Well shit._

"You remembered meeting someone new, didn't you?! I knew it! Gosh Mary Margaret and Ruby are going to throw you a freaking party once they realize you found your soul mate. _Who_ is it though? Is it someone from BU? This is so exciting wow."

"Geez calm the fuck down Els. I don't know who this guy is to be completely honest. Or _if_ this is the same guy that I think it is."

"Tell us about him, lass. Maybe it will be easier to find him."

"I was on my way here, to meet you guys when I saw the bluest pair of eyes I've ever seen. I mean, no offense Liam your eyes are pretty blue but his were _just so damn blue_."

"None taken, lass," he chuckled, "what else do you remember about him?"

Emma looked sheepishly at the two eager pair of eyes trained on her before mumbling that she didn't notice anything else because he was lost in the crowd.

"Well, anyway, it does not matter. Boston is a huge city. The chances of me meeting this soul mate of mine are _very_ less."

"Don't lose hope, lass. You two are soul mates. Destiny will bring you two together."

"Thanks Liam, but I seriously don't have much hope. Anyway it was nice to meet you but I have to go. I guess I will see you soon. And Elsa I will see you at home. Bye."

Emma hugged both of them goodbye and made her way to the library to work on her assignments before heading to the Rabbit Hole for her shift.

She couldn't quite concentrate on any of her tasks because she was distracted by the thought of her soul mate – a soul mate she now knew _for sure_ existed.

And for the first time in a long while, Emma Nolan had _hope of finding the kind of love all her friends had_.


	2. Part 2

**I am so glad that you all liked this story so far. Thank you everyone who followed, faved or reviewed!**

 **Elaine O'Roake: Killian did not meet Liam and Elsa that very day and so they had no idea that he was in that area at the same time as Emma or that he could be her soul mate. In fact, Liam doesn't even know that Killian found his soul mate. So I hope this clears your doubts. And thanks for reviewing!**

* * *

 _ **ii.** **take my hand and show me forever**_

Killian Jones believed in soul mates.

Well, at least he _used to_ before the whole Milah debacle. He met Milah when he 19. She was a spitfire. She was bold, lively and fierce. Her entire being used to glow with curiosity and the thirst of adventure. Sure, she was older than him (being a senior at the university he attended) but that did not matter much to Killian. He was _in love_ with her. He was _truly_ happy with her. She was his stars, his moon and his entire universe. When his soul mark did not start to darken and fill out when he met and fell in love with her, he was a bit disappointed. But somehow he believed that it _would_ start filling because there was no chance in hell that a woman he loved so dearly _wasn't his soul mate_.

All those dreams were shattered when he found her in _their_ bed _fucking_ her _History professor_ like her _bloody_ _life_ _depended on it_. And just like that he realized that the past four years of his life were nothing but an elaborate joke. She did not even have the _decency_ to apologize. All she did when he confronted her was laugh in his face and ask him if he _really_ thought _he_ could make _her_ happy. She basically told him that he was just an alibi for her supposed affair with her History professor.

And because of that, Killian Jones was absolutely _done_ with this whole soul mates business. Or he was done with it before his ponce of an elder brother (" _Bigger_ brother, Killy!") Liam found his. _That_ made him reconsider his whole "I don't believe in soul mates" philosophy. Because the lass unfortunate enough to be his brother's soul mate was amazing.

Elsa Arendelle was smart, brilliant, beautiful and an absolute expert in keeping his brother's huge ego in check. Liam met her in the hobby art class that Killian enrolled him in as his birthday gift. The way Liam was raving about the beautiful sassy blonde who sat beside him in the class made it more obvious that she was his soul mate than the darkened lines of his soul mark. And when Killian met her after a week of hearing his brother talk about her, he knew that Elsa was as smitten (if not more) as Liam was. So, yes Killian Jones started believing in soul mates again.

Well, technically, he still believed in them but he did not believe that _he_ had a soul mate.

Which is _exactly_ why the sudden burning sensation in his left wrist after an intense eye contact with the beautiful blonde with emerald eyes left him speechless and terrified. He was swept away by the crowd of fellow Bostonians before he could talk to her and by the time he had untangled himself from the crowd she was long gone. He looked at his swan soul mark only to find its outlines dark and clear.

He could not believe his luck. Twenty-five years of living in London and all he is awarded with is heartbreak and abandonment. And now, after spending only _two bloody months_ in Boston and he managed to not only _find_ his soul mate but also _lose_ her.

 _Bloody buggering hell! How am I supposed to find a blonde in all of Boston and not go crazy?_ he thought before shaking his head and making his way back to his office. His entire day was spent mixing up thoughts of various shipping orders and the beautiful blonde goddess who had somehow managed to weasel her way into his heart in the four hours since they had _glanced_ at each other.

After leaving the office, he made his way to the library to pick Belle up on his way to the Rabbit Hole for a strong drink. On his way inside, a very distracted blonde managed to make him almost lose his balance. He was ready to rain the wrath of hell on her before he recognized that said blonde was his _soul mate_. Unfortunately, she was so distracted that she did not even realize that she had managed to tip his world around the axis _again_. He ran after her but once again she was lost due to the faceless crowd of Boston.

Dejectedly he made his way inside to greet Belle.

"What has got you in such a sad mood?" Belle said as she made her way out of the reception desk and gathered her belongings.

"I found my soul mate and then lost sight of her because of the bloody crowd _twice_."

" _You what?!_ You found your _soul mate_ and _lost sight of her_ due to the crowd _twice_?"

"Yes, Lady French, I believe that is _exactly_ what I just said. And all that in five hours. Bloody hell."

"Oh Killian, I am so sorry. Tell me _how_ exactly this all happened."

"If it's alright with you, I would like to tell this particular story at the bar. I do not wish to repeat it again."

"That is completely understandable. Let me just call Tink and tell her that we are on our way." Belle said before patting his shoulder soothingly.

The duo made their way to the Rabbit Hole where Tink, Jefferson and Will were already seated with Killian and Belle's drinks in front of their seats.

"Okay Killian spill. Belle said that you were sad because of _soul mates_ stuff. It has been a while since you talked about Milah so what is this all about." Tink said as soon as they were within hearing distance.

Killian made his way to his seat and slammed back the rum his friends had so graciously ordered before even acknowledging Tink's question. Tink was the only one from the group who knew exactly how Killian was immediately after the Milah debacle. She was the one who brought his drunken ass to his apartment from whichever bar he had decided to drown his sorrows in. The only reason he relocated to Boston was because Liam was there and because Tink made the move three months before him. With both Liam and Tink gone, there was nothing left in London for Killian other than the ghosts of heartbreak and his naivety.

"Hello to you too, Tink."

"Yeah yeah. We get it. You want to wallow. But how about you do that _after_ you tell us what Belle meant with that soul mates comment." Jefferson said while flagging down the waiter to ask for refills.

"Guys, back off. Seriously. Give him a bit of space to gather his thoughts before attacking him with questions." Belle glared at the other three occupants of their table.

"Oh we are so sorry, _Mom_." Will retorted.

Killian just observed the banter before sighing and telling them to just _shut the buggering hell up_. He proceeded to dish out all the details of what exactly transpired between him and his lovely soul mate.

After a moment of silence and everyone staring at him as if he had grown two heads, Killian had had enough, "Oh for fuck's sake, will you four just say something?"

Will was the first one to respond, "Oi mate, seems to me that you are in wee bit of trouble here, innit?"

"Gosh Killian, this is just…just _wow_. You saw her _twice_?"

"Yes, Tink. Why would I lie about that?"

"I don't-"

Jefferson interrupted whatever she was going to say and said, "Well what are going to do about this, mate?"

"What am I going to do about this? What even _is_ there to do about this, Jeff? _Clearly_ , the universe just wants to taunt me. I mean, I personally would _not_ be surprised if my mysterious soul mate decided to just spontaneously move to Australia tomorrow!"

Belle looked sad because of his outburst before running her hand on his shoulder in a soothing manner and saying, "well you cannot just _give up hope_. You _found_ her twice in five hours. _Accidentally_. I am pretty sure you can find her again if you really _wanted_ to."

Tink, Jefferson and Will agreed with Belle.

"Oh okay _fine_ , you bilge rats. I will do everything I can to find her."

They all cheered.

"You might want to stop talking like a pirate then, mate. Wouldn't want the future missus to die because you annoyed the life outta her, uh?" Will quipped.

"Shut up, you wanker." Killian retorted.

The conversation flowed from there on but Killian was lost in thought.

 _A man unwilling to fight for what he wants, deserves what he gets_ , he thought, _I will find you mystery girl. Oh lord, Liam would be so happy to know that his brother found his soul mate. Ha._

He was so lost in his own thoughts and the conversation around him that he failed to notice the object of his affections tending the bar being equally lost in thought.

And for the first time in a long while, Killian Jones had _hope that maybe he would finally get his happy ending_.


	3. Part 3

**_iii. so never will i ever let you go_**

He tried.

He really did. But it seemed like his soul mate just did not want to be found. And with the lack of _any_ substantial information about said soul mate, Killian could do nothing but drink and curse the bloody concept of soul mates.

It had been almost three months and he was nowhere near finding the mysterious blonde beauty. After the conversation with his friends at the Rabbit Hole, Killian decided to heed to Tink's advice and take charge of his destiny.

The next day he divested his house of all alcohol so that he would not be tempted if he failed in his endeavor. Since he did not even manage to catch his soul mate's name, he could not go to any respectable private eyes and was left trying to find a somewhat respectable _soul mate private eye_. Ever since people realized that soul mates were a universal thing, some sodding idiots decided to take advantage of it and opened up businesses that helped people locate their soul mates.

He absolutely bloody hated those shoddy institutions and tried to find her himself for two weeks. But with no clue in sight he finally succumbed to the lure of resorting to using the soul mate private eyes.

Killian spent another two weeks compiling a list of the less shoddy of Boston's soul mate finding agencies (and bloody hated every minute of it but it _was_ for the greater good so he just tried to suck it up and not complain much) and had five narrowed down.

Another week was spent going to those places and rejecting quite a few of them because they turned out to be shoddier than their websites made them seem. With the help of Belle, Tink and Liam (who was bloody ecstatic that his little brother – _younger_ brother, Liam – had found a soul mate of his own) he finally managed to find an agency and hire them.

Which brings him to here – almost two months since he hired them and still no sign of his elusive soul mate.

Now considering that the only information he has about her is that she has blonde hair that shine brighter than the sun, jade green eyes that remind him of the forests back home and that he could easily get lost into (and does so in his dreams) and a face that is so beautiful that even angels would get green with envy, it really isn't a surprise that he hasn't found her yet. After all there are many green eyed blonde lasses in Boston to search from.

But he is Killian and after spending the better part of two years believing that you don't have a soul mate (even though the mark on your left wrist shows the contrary) and wallowing in that knowledge, it tends to get easier to lose any semblance of hope that chance encounter gave him.

And he knows all too well how many people die without seeing their soul marks darken and fill in because they just did not meet their soul mates _at all_. Really it serves him right for sleeping with all those lasses and cursing every deity known to mankind because of the Milah debacle.

And so Killian Jones, hereby known as the Man Who Lost His Soul Mate Right After He Found Her (hey he was kind of drunk when he came up with that name so cut him some slack, mate), went back to wallowing and drinking.

And Liam Jones is absolutely fucking done with his little ( _younger_ brother, Liam!) brother acting like he is going to die in the near future. So Liam Jones made his way to his brother's apartment and proceeded to grab the bottle of rum ( _Gods, he_ _upgraded to drinking directly from the bottle itself. This is getting bad._ ) and emptying it in the kitchen sink.

"Get off your ass, little brother. Elsa's friends just got engaged and they have a party today and _you_ are coming with us. I will not tolerate you wallowing here anymore," said Liam pushing Killian off his couch.

"Sod off, Lee! You found your soul mate, brother, you don't get to tell me if I can or cannot wallow. _You don't understand what I am going through!_ "

Liam sighed. His brother was right. He found Elsa and they fell in love almost right away. He did not understand the extent of his younger brother's pain. But he just couldn't let Killian waste away his days working and drinking.

"Killian you are right. I don't understand how you must be feeling right now and I won't even pretend that I do. But I do know that seeing you like this breaks my heart – all of our hearts. You haven't attended your almost daily hangout session at the Rabbit Hole for two weeks now. Belle, Tink and Jeff are so worried about you. We all are," he squeezed Killian's shoulder, "just come out today. You don't have to even enjoy yourself but please just get out of this house for something other than work or buying more alcohol."

Killian got where his brother was coming from. Everyone seemed to be worried that he would go down the same path he went through after Milah and that made him feel guilty. He honestly did not mean to cause them worry he just wanted to forget about his spectacularly unsuccessful love life. Sighing he nodded his assent.

"Fine, I will go to this party with you," he said and left in the direction of his bedroom.

"Great! And go take a shower. You stink and I would not have them think that my little brother is a slob."

"For the love of God, _younger_ brother, Liam!"

Liam laughed as he could hear Killian grumble from the bedroom. His brother would be just fine.

Killian was seriously regretting his decision to come to the party. There were too many people around and he was _definitely_ not in the mood of making small talk today.

"Whose engagement party is this anyway, Liam?"

"Mary Margaret and David. They have been Elsa's friends for almost six years now. They are really great and nice. Mary Margaret will probably force you to eat five cupcakes before asking your name," he chuckled.

Killian was glad that his brother found new friends. Liam was always a loner of sorts, always more interested in his studies and then his job than in partying or going out. That was exactly why he signed him up for that hobby arts class and now he is really glad he did. Elsa was perfect for him. She helped him find a balance between his personal and professional life. Killian hadn't seen his elder brother this happy since before their mum died.

"Ah, I can see Elsa over there. Let's go Killian."

They made their way through the crowd and reached Elsa. She introduced him to her friends and before he knew it, Killian found himself having a good time. They were just as great as Liam described them, Elsa's friends. David reminded him a lot of Liam and he found common ground with Graham and Robin in football. Ruby could keep up with his quips and Mary Margaret actually did force him to eat two cupcakes if not the five that Liam thought she would. Regina was probably the only one who hadn't warmed up to him that well and proceeded to make sarcastic retorts but he could tell that she was probably like that with every new addition to their group. Killian could see Elsa's friends fitting perfectly with his group of friends and the fact that Regina seemed to know Tink just cemented that thought.

He had just started forgetting about the search for his soul mate when he heard the most beautiful mesmerizing voice he ever.

"Hey guys, sorry I am late. Traffic was a total bitch," the angelic voice said.

Killian turned to see the newcomer and felt his heart stop in his chest. It was her. It was his bloody soul mate. She somehow looked even radiant in the dim lighting of the bar. Her long blonde hair hung loose and flowed as gracefully as the sunshine down her back. Her beautiful eyes seemed greener than he last remembered.

He could tell she hadn't seen him yet and could hear the sound of conversation in the background. But his mind was still frozen. He had found her. He found his bloody soul mate and this time he was not going to let her get away.

Killian finally seemed to have found his voice and exclaimed breathlessly, "you!"

The blonde goddess finally seemed to have noticed his presence and her eyes grew wide the minute they met his. She seemed as shocked as he felt.

"You!" she said in the same breathless tone that he did. He could feel rather than see the confused stares of everyone around them. But it did not matter. At that moment it was as if it was just the two of them in the room – the whole world around them had disappeared.

He took a deep breath and held his hand out and said, "hello there love, I am Killian Jones, your soul mate."

Still not breaking eye contact with him, she took his hand in hers and said with a smile, "Emma Nolan, your soul mate."

The world around them erupted with gasps and questions but they just grinned at each other with their hands still intertwined.

 _ **fin**_


End file.
